Hello,

I am having to work harder at this game because I am now trying to finish it on the hard cycle. Since food seems to be so important here, I find myself wondering about the crop cycles. I have not been able to determine, by observation alone, whether the length of time that the field, or bush has produce is determined by time or quantity. In other words, If the field is full of crops and I put all my villagers to harvest, will it cycle out sooner?
Is it better to ration the amount of crops so I can have a longer lasting field? The same question about the berries. If I put one villager harvesting berries, will the bush stay full longer, or is there a finite amount of berries, and no matter what schedule I forage them on, they will disappear when this magic number is reached.

also, does actually letting the villagers "plant" or "water crops" make any difference in encouraging the field to grow, or are they just activity words like talking, fixing a hut etc.

The algorithms for food production are based on both time and quantity. There is a maximum amount of food your villagers can gather during a crop cycle period, but the crops grow on a cyclical schedule based upon game speed. Your villagers will gain farming skill as they gather berries and work the farm, whether or not there are actually crops to be harvested. This additional skill will pay big dividends later on when they learn how to fish.

Thanks! but do I have to let them water and plant, or can I just let them do research until the crops come again?
It takes so long to research to get to fishing, when I have to work so hard getting the food, and keeping the villagers alive!

It's really your choice whether or not to temporarily divert your farmers to researching or to let them continue to work the farm (or pick berries if there are still some on the bush). You will not disrupt the growth of the next crop, but you will reduce the benefit of fishing (when you get level 3 of harvesting) to the degree that your farmers have had a reduced opportunity to build farming skills. Either way works, and sometimes I go one way and sometimes another.

okay, I understand.. It doesn't actually help the crop, but it does improve the skill of the workers. In the early stages, it really is a paycheck to paycheck existence though, so working on research does help you get to fishing faster...then you can improve on your fishermen't ability

Okay, now I have a new problem, the field of crops is not cycling, it is always full of crops! I know this is not a real problem, but I do have it on the hard level, and not struggling with food makes it kind of easy.

I am on the Tungsten|T5

If your villagers don't harvest all of the crops on the farm before the new ones they planted grow, it's possible to see crops continuously on the farm. That's normal, and will not continue as your population grows and you have more farmers harvesting crops.

What about when they try watering the fields before level 2 is researched? Is that just an instructional activity?

There is a difference between watering the field and watering crops. They are totally unrelated activities - one is a puzzle and the other is a food source. Your villagers will not water the crops until you have knowledge of farming.